Through the years the need for a truly effective front opening holster, particularly for law enforcement work has been recognized. Early work by J. E. Berns represented in U.S. Pat. No. 2,001,321 combined a leather holster body with an internal spring to mechanically bias the sides of the holster together while allowing front withdrawal of the handgun. The spring embraces the cylinder portion of the gun.
We discovered that the use of a wire spring which extends along the entire edges of the front opening and is formed in a generally vertical U shape provides superior closing of the front opening and more uniform withdrawal pressure requirements on the gun. This arrangement plus cylinder recesses, which prevent upward withdrawal of the gun, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,420 to John Bianchi, one of the inventors hereof.
An improved low mounting for front opening holsters as well as a modified U spring are disclosed in the patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,293 of the co-inventor, John Bianchi.
Other representative patents disclosing front opening holsters with wire spring closures are:
U.s. pat. No. 3,642,183 to Boren; and PA1 U.s. pat. No. 2,109,232 to Hoyt.
Despite the advances made in the past in front opening holsters, a number of minute and hardly perceptible relationships between the holster body, the spring, the closure strap, the gun and the wearer's hand have been unrecognized.
For example, any spring closure holster having the spring located only in the cylinder region, or with the base of the U in the muzzle will exert a non-uniform pressure on the barrel of the gun, causing what is termed "muzzle drag."
A holster which covers the trigger guard also tends to limit the hand engagement of the grip during the early stages of drawing the gun.
A front opening holster with a vertical U shaped spring is necessarily longer than desired to provide room for the U portion of the spring and is closed, producing a pocket which collects debris. The front opening holster with this muzzle drag may cause sliding of the holster on the belt and uncertain drawing of the gun.
Closure straps which may be easily unsnapped by the wearer on drawing, may also become unsnapped inadvertantly or by others, and often metal fasteners contact the gun causing wear or interference with the draw. Closure straps which cover the hammer often interfere with the draw. Rear sights are often either unprotected or, if enclosed, have unwanted contact with the holster. Holsters having low mounting belt loops have often tended to distort and bow outward with use and wearing.
These and other heretofore unrecognized design details have limited the overall utility of holsters in general, and front opening holsters in particular.
A continual problem has been the need for firm spring closing of front opening holsters and, at the same time, one which can practically be assembled with the spring securely sewn within the holster.